S & P records a series of seven-day wins as job data ease economic fears By Reuters

By April Joyner

NEW YORK (Reuters) – US stocks rose on Friday, boosted by better-than-expected job growth in March, which helped dispel fears of an economic slowdown that periodically weakens financial markets at home. during the past year.

With Friday's gains, the benchmark closed higher for seven trading days, making it its longest streak of wins since October 2017.

The Labor Department said nonagricultural jobs rose by 196,000 in March, exceeding the 180,000 new jobs forecast by economists polled by Reuters. February data were revised upwards to reach a gain of 33,000 instead of the 20,000 previously reported, the lowest gain since September 2017.

The data reassured two weeks after the yield curve between three-month Treasury bills and briefly reversed 10-year notes, which is generally considered a sign of imminent recession.

"The reversal of the yield curve has frightened people and made them think of a recession," said Andrew Slimmon, Senior Portfolio Manager at Morgan Stanley (NYSE 🙂 Investment Management in New York. "Data like today's are taking that off the table."

However, wage increases slowed in March, leaving data largely in favor of the Federal Reserve's decision to suspend its three-year campaign to tighten monetary policy.

Dovish Fed and hopes of a trade deal between the United States and China have raised the S & P 500 to its highest level since October 9, placing only 1.3% below its closing record .

The increase rose 40.36 points, or 0.15%, to $ 26,424.99, the S & P 500 gained 13.35 points, or 0.46%, to 2,892.74 and the 46, 91 points, or 0.59%, to 7,938.69.

Shares around the world have also benefited from remarks by President Donald Trump on Thursday that Beijing and Washington are on the verge of concluding a trade deal that could be announced within four weeks. Trump later said that he would not predict that an agreement will be reached.

Next week, corporate profits will be better taken into account as major US banks report quarterly results. Analysts expect the profits of the S & P 500 companies to drop year by year for the first time since 2016.

On Friday, energy stocks jumped 1.7%, the largest percentage increase among the S & P 500 sectors, as oil prices firmed after US employment data was released. anticipations that a conflict in Libya could tighten supply.

Technology stocks rose 0.4%, rebounding after Thursday's decline, while shares of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ 🙂 and Microsoft Corp (NASDAQ 🙂 has increased.

Dow Inc. shares contributed to limiting gains on Dow Industrials. The shares fell 4.1% when J.P. Morgan started hedging the company, which was derived from DowDuPont Inc., with an "underweighted" rating.

Boeing (NYSE 🙂 Co shares fell 1.0% after UBS lowered its price target. According to the preliminary report that followed the fatal crash of Ethiopian Airlines last month, said the MCAS anti-stall software was contributing to the crash. The software was also involved in the fatal crash of a Lion Air 737 MAX aircraft in Indonesia in October.

Increasing issues outnumbered declining issues at the NYSE with a ratio of 2.81 to 1; on the Nasdaq, a ratio of 2.28 to 1 favored advances.

The S & P 500 has recorded 34 new highs over 52 weeks and no new lows; the Nasdaq Composite recorded 75 new highs and 23 new lows.

The volume of US trade amounted to 6.24 billion shares, against 7.33 billion on average for the full session of the last 20 trading days.